11/04/2025
I have this conversation almost daily with patients in my practice. Alcohol consumption does not “help you sleep“. It impairs sleep and overall performance on multiple levels.  If you’re missing out on quality sleep, you’re missing out on the restorative properties of the body and the ability to produce testosterone and growth hormone (on your own…).
“There’s also the issue of sleep, says Anoopinder Singh, MD, a board-certified psychiatrist with Mindpath Health. Because alcohol reduces rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, which is essential for memory consolidation and emotional regulation, heavy drinking is known to impair cognitive function and mood, he explains.
In the short term, this is why you may feel foggy and agitated after a night of drinking, but over the long term, this alcohol-induced daze can lead to memory loss, slow processing speed, and poor problem-solving skills.
Last but not least, alcohol contributes to vascular damage, which raises the likelihood of strokes and small vessel disease, resulting in increased dementia risk, according to Turner.
So how does alcohol cause so much damage, you ask? “The primary culprit is ethanol and its metabolite acetaldehyde,” Singh says. “Ethanol alters neuronal signaling and sleep, while acetaldehyde drives oxidative stress and neuroinflammation.” Alcohol also generates free radicals in the body, triggering neuroinflammation and interfering with nutrient absorption, ultimately contributing to brain cell death and increased dementia risk.”
Be aware
Be HOL
Researchers from Oxford, Yale, and Cambridge found that any level of alcohol consumption raises dementia risk. Using genetic data from over 500,000 participants, they discovered that light drinkers faced a significant uptick in dementia diagnoses. The findings call into question decades of “health...
